I'll write a more comprehensive writeup over the next few days, but today's INQvitational, organised by Mol over at Inq28 was a real sensory overload - absolutely superb in every way: well run, friendly, and impressive in ambition, design, conception and execution. It was a real joy to meet a number of people I've spoken to through various different forums and to spend the day hanging out and helping to muddy the waters of the Helios Succession - not only that, but being asked to do so using the miniatures of one of my all-time painting heroes, Jakob Rune Nielsen.

Thanks to everyone that had a hand in organising the day - your efforts are seriously appreciated and I look forward to many more meet-ups in future. Special thanks to Neil and Peter for being as friendly, funny and welcoming in real life as online.

Ask ye not for who they seeke.

Welcome to The Tears of Isstvan.

This blog is primarily a record of my slow progress in miniature painting and modelling, and has a bias towards the settings, imagery and output of the English wargaming company, Games Workshop, and within that will largely focus on the dystopian gothic-grotesque Warhammer 40,000 setting.

Alongside a showcase of my creative processes and the resultant miniatures that make up my Inquisitorial conclaves, 40k and Fantasy armies, I intend to engage critically with the miniatures, the settings, and the current state of miniature painting, and for the blog to become a focal point of measured discussion on some of the broader aspects of the gaming and painting culture.

I perceive an emergent 'golden age' in miniature painting and a marked shift in the consideration of where to now take this hobby given the level of technical mastery that's been achieved by certain painters - a mastery that has long been espoused as the ideal, and an ideal that needs critiquing. Alongside this, I also perceive that there are certain painters that innately understand the 40k setting, and that it is these people that are spear-heading this level of critique as they seek to remove the disconnect between the presentation of the setting and it's representation in miniature form.

I make no apologies, however, for my adoration of GW luminary John Blanche and the 'Blanche aesthetic' as I see it, and it is this adoration that colours my understanding of the 40k setting.

Naturally, these ideas are simply my own opinions and are welcome to be questioned or challenged. I may well not be right, but hopefully it'll be interesting.